Even as President Barack Obama’s and Romney’s campaigns have halted their campaigning in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, the former director of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Michael Brown has stepped forward to criticize President Obama’s handling of the current natural disaster.

Brown is remembered for his time as the head of FEMA, when he was in charge of handling the agency response to Hurricane Katrina. At that time, President George W. Bush told Brown, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”

In an interview with Denver Westword, Brown speculated that President Barack Obama might have acted too quickly:

“One thing he’s gonna be asked is, why did he jump on this so quickly and go back to D.C. so quickly when in…Benghazi, he went to Las Vegas? Why was this so quick?… At some point, somebody’s going to ask that question…. This is like the inverse of Benghazi.”

Specifically, Brown did not think it was necessary for President Obama to hold a press conference on Sunday afternoon if the storm was not expected to hit until late afternoon on Monday and at that time, local officials such as New York Michael Bloomberg seemed to have the situation under control. However, he understands that the president might have erred on the side of caution:

“My guess is, he wants to get ahead of it — he doesn’t want anybody to accuse him of not being on top of it or not paying attention or playing politics in the middle of it. He probably figured Sunday was a good day to do a press conference.”

Brown also offered President Obama some advice:

“My advice to him is that he needs to call the cabinet and tell the cabinet members that if [current FEMA director] Craig Fugate calls and asks for something, the expectation is he is going to get whatever he needs.”

The president has done just that. When he made an unannounced visit to the headquarters of the Red Cross in Washington, DC, President Obama said that he has ordered federal officials that the areas impacted by Superstorm Sandy should get all the help they need. According to him, he told them:

“Do not figure out why we can’t do something. I want you to figure out how we do something. I want you to cut through red tape, I want you to cut through bureaucracy, there is no excuse for inaction at this point. I want every agency to lean forward.”

To read the rest of Brown’s interview with Denver Westword, click here.